‘Dozens’ of Ohio State University students say they never got their mail ballots, voting advocates say

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Voting-rights advocates said Tuesday that they’ve heard from students, including “dozens” at Ohio State University, who have said they never got the mail ballot they requested for today’s election.

Mia Lewis, associate director of Common Cause Ohio, said they’ve encountered these students as they’ve showed up at polling places Tuesday morning on OSU’s campus to try to vote.

Nazek Hapasha, policy affairs manager for the Ohio League of Women Voters, said advocates also have noticed a significant number of ballot sent to ZIP codes in the OSU area that haven’t been returned. In addition, Hapasha has spoken with a handful of students in other parts of the state with similar issues.

Voting-rights advocates recommend that anyone who requested a mail ballot but never got it should go to their polling place and cast a provisional ballot, a type of voting through which ballots aren’t immediately counted because elections officials take extra time to verify the voter’s eligibility.

Voting provisionally may require a voter to visit their county Board of Elections before Monday to verify their vote, a process that includes showing a photo ID. Voting by mail doesn’t require a photo ID, under current law, which is why voting-rights groups have promoted it as an option to students, who often don’t have an in-state driver’s license. County elections offices will be closed on Saturday due to the Veterans Day holiday.

Absentee ballots must be postmarked by Monday and arrive before next Monday in order to count.

Voters who have mailed their completed absentee ballot can use the state’s online tool, https://www.ohiosos.gov/elections/voters/toolkit/ballot-tracking/, to verify whether it has arrived at their county board of elections. Voters who are uncertain whether their ballots will arrive can cast a provisional ballot to make sure, Hapasha said.

Lewis said that other than in college towns, state data doesn’t show an unusually high number of outstanding absentee ballots overall. Voting-rights advocates weren’t certain about the reason for the ballot problems for students, but thought it could have something to do with university mail systems that serve as a “middle man” between students and the post office.

Mike West, a spokesperson for the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, said it’s “not uncommon” for there to be issues with college mailing systems. He said he hadn’t heard of a college problem in Cuyahoga County though.

“There’s lots of reasons that could happen. On-campus mail is notoriously undependable. A lot of times students handle the mail,” West said.

Ohio voters Tuesday were deciding two statewide issues: Issue 1, which would guarantee the right of abortion in the state constitution, and Issue 2, which would legalize recreational marijuana for those 21 and over. Local issues and candidates also appeared on the ballot in many communities, including a Cuyahoga Community College tax levy in Cuyahoga County and a charter amendment in Cleveland that would give a citizen’s group control over a slice of the city’s budget.

Voting-rights advocates shared the troubles with student voting during a Tuesday morning call with reporters. They also reported one minor irregularity. At Fernway Elementary in Shaker Heights, the electronic ballot-counting machines failed around 8:45 a.m. Elections officials fixed the problem within an hour, they said. No voters were prevented from voting, although it contributed to temporarily slower lines, they said.